The present invention relates to identification card printing systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to a card supply for use with an identification card printing system that includes a supply circuit that contains supply information relating to parameters of the card supply.
Identification cards are widely used to carry information relating to the card holder, for example. The use of such identification cards is becoming more and more widespread and they are used for many purposes, such as driver""s licenses, identification badges, etc. In the past, identification cards have been manufactured using a labor intensive process in which an individual""s data was manually stamped or imprinted onto a card. In some cases, an instant photograph was taken of the subject and adhered or laminated to a card. Today, the manufacturer of identification cards has become increasingly automated. An individual""s data may be obtained from a computer database and formatted by software running on a computer to generate a print job. The print job can then be provided to an identification card printing system for printing onto a card substrate to form the identification card.
Identification card printing systems generally include a card supply, a printing mechanism, and a transport mechanism for delivering individual cards from the card supply to the print mechanism for printing. The card supply includes a stack of cards stored in a hopper, which can be fed individually to the transport mechanism. The print mechanism can be an ink jet printhead, a thermal printhead, or other suitable type of print mechanism. In operation, individual cards are fed from the card supply and are transported along a print path by the transporter mechanism to the printhead for printing.
Prior art identification card printing systems require an operator to check various supplies of the printer prior to commencing the processing of a print job to ensure that the print job can be completed as desired. For example, it is necessary that the operator check the card supply to ensure that the card type, the orientation of the cards, and the number of cards remaining in the card supply satisfy the needs of the print job. These checks of various card supply information can be time consuming and, if not performed, could lead to spoiled supplies due to improper printer setup resulting in increased operation costs.
The present invention is directed to a card supply for use within an identification card printing system that provides benefits over the prior art. The card supply includes a card hopper and a supply circuit. The card hopper contains a stack of cards. The supply circuit is mounted to the card hopper and includes a memory containing supply information relating to parameters of the card supply.
Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a method for use with an identification card printing system to manage the above-described card supply. In the method, supply information is retrieved from the memory and used during the processing of cards by the identification card printing system.